On this Mother's Day, May 13, 2001, the United States ranks 11th out of 94 countries on the Mothers' Index, behind the top 10, from first to 10th: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada, Austria, Australia and the United Kingdom. The report called for more government funding for maternal and child health and family planning services. In other words, because the U.S. does not have a national health care system, paid for by federal funds, guaranteeing every person who lives here full medical care from cradle to grave as exists in the rest of the industrialized world, we have a low ranking among industrialized nations as far as women's health is concerned.

This report ranked countries on the basis of a mother's access to health care, use of contraception and family planning, literacy rate and participation in government. There is still very little participation of women in most levels of government, nowhere near the 50% it should be, and the literacy rate of this society is declining as government funding for quality schools declines and the poverty increases due to low wages.

The United States ranked 22nd out of 140 nations in terms of the girls' investment index because of the high teen pregnancy rate. The girls' index was based on comparison of infant mortality rates, nutritional status, primary school enrollment and access to safe water. These are all serious problems in the USA.

This story was prominent on Yahoo on May 8, 2001, but it was nowhere to be found in Northern California's newspaper of record, the San Francisco Chronicle. One wonders why these rags bother to exist.

For more information on this report, see:

http://www.savethechildren.org/mothers/newsroom/pr01_sowm.htm

As to what you can do to remedy this problem, join a socialist party like California's Peace & Freedom Party for the private enterprise system, capitalism, cannot deliver the goods and services necessary to liberate women and guaranty full equality. Just check "Other" on your voter registration card and write in "Peace and Freedom Party." For more information, see http://www.peaceandfreedom.org